Post by Dean Robinson on Jun 11, 2008 7:48:59 GMT -5
There’s a new private investigator in town and they don’t work for Insurance
Companies. Or do they?
The Devil in Disguise is none other than the highly used Social Utility online
called “Facebook”. Young and old alike are raving about it’s abilities to supply us
with ALL the information you could possibly want on friends, co-workers, family
members – anyone – As long as you have a couple of participants willing to post
anything about themselves in, what would be a seemingly fun and friendly
environment, you have others peeking in! Like spying on your teachers in the
lunch room when the door’s left open!
So what’s the problem, you ask?
As if I need to explain this, but I will: Everyone who has a Facebook profile
checks in daily if not hourly - from there they can post their thoughts, what
they ate for dinner, the friends they hung out with that day, even the activities
they’ve done in the past like driving from Winnipeg to Edmonton without a
license…. [.sad but true posting] for the entire world to see.
They post about their accomplishments, in case an old school mate looks them
up. They post pictures from last week’s hiking trip up in the mountains. They
post the drunken party pics and how fun it was to take self portraits at close
range with the glazed over eyes. They add ‘applications’ to their Facebook
profile; just another fancy way of giving away the ‘personality’ goods.
Let’s say, if I were into drinking [which I’m not but if I were], I’d add the
drinking application and send a virtual beer at Happy Hour in Facebook! Sounds
fun, right? Then, if I were into joining groups, I could. I could join groups like
“Men who wear spandex and like it” or “I don’t care how comfortable Crocs are;
you look like a dumb ass”. Now, take that scenario and imagine a boss, or my
fiancé’s mom checking it out. Now it’s not so fun. It’s humiliating.
Yesterday on the radio I heard an announcer talking about how easy it is to
trace people in Facebook and how Corporations are doing this to learn about
people. It’s the new ‘thing’; “check” someone out without them knowing. Great
to do before considering someone for something really important, like hiring for
a job – Not so great when defending someone in a litigation for personal injury
and they’ve posted how they just went out dancing or hiking last weekend and
got wasted.
Guaranteed. If anyone with a profile can be looked up and checked out by the
average Joe, so can Insurance Companies who are looking to protect their
vested interests. In other words, time to re-think the info you put out there,
people.
Companies. Or do they?
The Devil in Disguise is none other than the highly used Social Utility online
called “Facebook”. Young and old alike are raving about it’s abilities to supply us
with ALL the information you could possibly want on friends, co-workers, family
members – anyone – As long as you have a couple of participants willing to post
anything about themselves in, what would be a seemingly fun and friendly
environment, you have others peeking in! Like spying on your teachers in the
lunch room when the door’s left open!
So what’s the problem, you ask?
As if I need to explain this, but I will: Everyone who has a Facebook profile
checks in daily if not hourly - from there they can post their thoughts, what
they ate for dinner, the friends they hung out with that day, even the activities
they’ve done in the past like driving from Winnipeg to Edmonton without a
license…. [.sad but true posting] for the entire world to see.
They post about their accomplishments, in case an old school mate looks them
up. They post pictures from last week’s hiking trip up in the mountains. They
post the drunken party pics and how fun it was to take self portraits at close
range with the glazed over eyes. They add ‘applications’ to their Facebook
profile; just another fancy way of giving away the ‘personality’ goods.
Let’s say, if I were into drinking [which I’m not but if I were], I’d add the
drinking application and send a virtual beer at Happy Hour in Facebook! Sounds
fun, right? Then, if I were into joining groups, I could. I could join groups like
“Men who wear spandex and like it” or “I don’t care how comfortable Crocs are;
you look like a dumb ass”. Now, take that scenario and imagine a boss, or my
fiancé’s mom checking it out. Now it’s not so fun. It’s humiliating.
Yesterday on the radio I heard an announcer talking about how easy it is to
trace people in Facebook and how Corporations are doing this to learn about
people. It’s the new ‘thing’; “check” someone out without them knowing. Great
to do before considering someone for something really important, like hiring for
a job – Not so great when defending someone in a litigation for personal injury
and they’ve posted how they just went out dancing or hiking last weekend and
got wasted.
Guaranteed. If anyone with a profile can be looked up and checked out by the
average Joe, so can Insurance Companies who are looking to protect their
vested interests. In other words, time to re-think the info you put out there,
people.